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*'^'' Who is He? 



AN APPEAL TO THOSE WHO REGARD WITH ANY DOUBT 



THE NAME OF 



JESUS. 



Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I might 
believe on him ? — John ix. 35, 36. 



S^ 



BY 



S. F. SMILEY. 




C^ PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
1868. 



/ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

J. B.LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Lippincott's Press, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



It does not lie within the purpose of this work to 
meet the cavils of those who hold themselves in resolute 
hostility to the Gospel. It appeals only to such as are 
earnest in their inquiries, and who prize, above any 
mere pleasantness of Opinion, the honesty of Truth. 

Nor does its scope admit of more than a general 
recognition of all those practical bearings of the Gospel, 
which fill the Christian's life, as the working out of his 
salvation. There has been therefore no attempt to 
travel round the vast circumference of Truth, but only 
to survey steadily Him who is its Centre. 




CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. The Authority of Holy Scripture 7 

II. The Creator, King and Judge. 20 

III. The Son of Man 25 

IV. The One God 29 

V. The Saviour 34 

IV. How He Saves 38 

VII. Type and Antitype 48 

VIII. Perplexities and Mysteries 54 

IX. The Lord our Righteousness 69 

X. Emmanuel — Christ and the Spirit 73 

XI. The Everlasting Gospel S3 

XII. Appropriation of Christ 96 

XIII. Christ's Invitation 100 




Who is He? 




HO is He ? In this one short and simple 
question may be gathered up the com- 
plex doubts and difficulties of many 
hearts. In it we may hear the cry which now 
again, as often in the past, appeals the most 
loudly to the Church of Christ. If, as has been 
said by one who spoke advisedly of the ever- 
downward tendency of an age of doubt, it must 
come at last to this — ''Is there a God?" — then 
surely when this most solemn of all verities is 
established, the next hold in the upward reach- 
ing must be upon Him who stands confessedly in 
some relation or other between God and man ; — 
Who is He? 

In that artless narrative of the fourth Gospel, 

7 



8 



WHO IS HE? 



in which we find the question, we can trace in 
him who asked it a slowly growing certainty of 
knowledge, ending in clear and full belief. He 
had been born blind ; and to the question of the 
Jews, ''How were thine eyes opened?" he first 
answered, '' A man that is called jfesus made 
clay and anointed mine eyes." Soon after he 
said of Jesus, '^ He is a prophet;'' and again, 
" If this man were not of God^ He could do 
nothing'' Then when the Jews had cast him 
out of the synagogue for these sayings, Jesus 
found him and asked him, " Dost thou believe 
on the Son of God?" He answered and said, 
" Who is He^ Lord^ that I might believe on 
Him.?" And Jesus said unto him, '' Thou hast 
both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with 
thee." And he said, '''' Lor d^ I be- 
lieve'' And he worshipped Him. 
And who is He, that we also might believe on 
Him ? Is it not the suppressed sigh of thou- 
sands? And the yearning hearts of the young 
at least are audibly uttering it. Weary of groping 
from doubt to doubt along a still darker and 
more uncertain way, you are longing for the sure 
foothold and firm grasp of faith, where from one 
conviction to another you may climb upward to 



John ix. 1-38. 



WHO IS HEP 9 

the light. But is there such a path? you ask. 
The whole Christian world is full of the stir and 
tumult of contending parties. All seem equally 
certain that they alone are on the side of truth ; 
and some say one thing and some another. Is 
there any possibility of certain knowledge.^ 
Who, indeed, is He, that we may doubt no more, 
but may believe } 

Now, upon such a question what testimony 
shall we receive ? In the things of God no evi- 
dence can be sure that does not come from God ; 
for none of us has ever entered heaven to bring 
back its secrets ; none of us has ever beheld 
God that we should make known his nature ; 
and as no creature below man can understand 
man, so no more can man by himself compre- 
hend a Being so far above him as God. Or, to 
borrow a more sententious language in which 
the same necessity was long ago argued, '' No 

man hath ascended up to heaven." 

^ John iii. 13. 

'' No man hath seen God at any joim i. 18. 

time." "• What man knoweth the ^ ^°^' ^'' ^^' 

things of a man, save the spirit of man which 

is in him? even so the things of God knoweth 

no man but the Spirit of God." All, then, that 

we can possibly know of Him beyond the infer- 



lO WHO IS HEf 

ence of " His eternal power and Godhead" from 
His visible works, must be by manifestation or 
by revelation. The Holy Scriptures contain the 
record of the one under the seal of the other. 
First prophecy prepared the w^ay with its ante- 
JliniiilS ^^^^^t proofs. Then One "came 
John i. 18. down from heaven." The only be- 
gotten Son declared the Father. In some sense 
(it would anticipate too much to define it closely) 

T m. ...1/5 ''God was manifest in the flesh." No 
1 Tim. m, 16. 

speech nor language could set forth 

the fulness of God, and when at last it was to 

Heb, i. 2. be uttered, it was spoken by a life, — 

Jolm i. 14. ,, ^j^^ ^ox^L of God." Then, through 

the Apostles were still further made known '-the 

wisdom of God," and " the deep things of God," 

and also " things to come ;" which God so revealed 

unto them by His Spirit, that they 
1 Cor. ii. 1-16, , ^ , . -. ^ ^, . „ 

had " the mind of Christ." 

In this volume of recorded facts and revealed 

truths, we find then the evidence we are in 

search of. Yet here an objection may meet us. 

These things of God are " spiritually 
1 Cor. ii. 14. , 

discerned," and to our spirits also 

they must be revealed by His Spirit; therefore 

does not the inward witness supersede the out- 



WHO IS HEP II 

ward testimony? But important as is the work 
of the Spirit upon the individual mind, and pre- 
sumptuous as it would be to limit His power in 
the direct iUumination of the soul, yet how can 
we possibly appeal to such an influence as an 
authority for doctrine? Were this the only 
channel of Divine Revelation, what false and 
conflicting claims — all resting on no other evi- 
dence than the word of each man or the agree- 
ment of a few — would abound in the world, with 
no hope of refutation left us ! While a written 
record, given forth by this same Spirit for all 
men to believe, supplies just such a universal 
standard as we need. Nor is it taking aught 
from the high prerogatives of the Holy Spirit 
to receive as His own work the Holy Scriptures ; 
to believe that '' holy men of old spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost," and that '' all 
Scripture' is given by inspiration of God ;" while 
we admit that the Spirit now completes the 
mission of revealing the things of God, by adding 
to this outward evidence the power of spiritual 
reception, and so applying the truths of which 
they wrote directly to our own souls, according 
to the need of each. 

But if we do not receive the Bible as a true 



12 ^ WHO IS HEf 

record, what else have we to found any reh'glon 
upon ? There must be some proof to satisfy our 
minds. No reasonable being is required to be- 
lieve anything without evidence of its truth. 
And once rejecting the Holy Scripture, or even 
reversing its rule to receive its testimony, '^ not 

as the word of men, but as it is in 

1 Thess. ii. 13. . , i r ^ i ?» i ^ 

truth, the word oi (jod, where then 

in Nature, in Reason, or in Experience is there 
anv solid proof whatever that we have immortal 
souls to be saved, and that there is a way in 
which to save them } Nor can we partly re- 
ceive and partly reject this revelation. It claims 
for itself to be as complete as it is true. The 
solemn warning which closes its final prophecy — 
that none should add and none should take away 
Eev. xxii. 18 ^^'^^ i^s words — covers most obvi- 
■^^' ously all that has the same author- 

ship. No power of selection is allowed us w^ith 
any portion of it. We must receive it as a whole 
or reject it as a whole. And to be consistent in 
such a rejection, one would have to set aside also 
every conclusion which it authorized, and place 
himself precisely on a level with the heathen as 
respects the knowledge of heavenly things. 
All that the world at large has gained through 



I 



WHO IS HEf 13 

CN^en a very partial reception of that wisdom 
which it teaches — all the fertilizing streams of 
influence that have flowed from this fountain, in 
. the wider prevalence of truth and justice, in the 
amelioration of human wrongs and sufferings, 
in a higher moral standard, and in the love and 
gentleness it has fostered — all this we must reject 
as a delusion also ; or else account that those 
things which are noblest and loveliest upon this 
our earth, rest on no surer foundation than a 
fable or falsehood — that man's highest prosperity 
depends upon his being most foolishly deceived. 
It is true that, since the final seal was set to 
their inspiration, the Holy Scriptures have had 
to come down to us through the often dark and 
troubled years of eighteen centuries. But in 
their faithful transmission, and the general accu- 
racy of their translations, we can find traces of a 
Divine Providence still caring for the priceless 
treasure which was entrusted seemingly to human 
hands. The external evidences which sustain 
their authenticity are among the strongest known 
to History, and lie open to any ordinary intelli- 
gence. But in the vast results which their re- 
ception has effected in the world, and still more 
in their marvelous fitness to our own natures — 



14 WHO IS HEf 

to the depth of our need, to the height of our 
longing, and throughout the whole range of the 
daily-widening interests of life, we find other 
evidence ; and all combined so solid a structure ' 
that the hand must be rash indeed that would 
think to shake it. And though the highest con- 
firmation of all is only to be reached through 
spiritual experience, yet the lowxr proofs are 
amply sufficient for the place they fill. 

Let it be supposed, then, that the testimony of 
the Holy Scriptures is freely accepted as conclu- 
sive. A wide field of doubt may still lie open 
in their interpretation ; and how, it may be asked, 
among all the different constructions given to its 
words, can we find our answer to the question, 
Who is He ? But how hopeful does this inquiry 
become as we consider that on this important 
subject they themselves profess to furnish a direct 
and explicit testimony, and that among all the 
high objects kept steadily in view, the pre-emi- 
nence is ever assigned to this ! 

In the New Testament, not only is It an- 
nounced, either directly or indirectly, that the 
design of each Gospel is to tell of Jesus Christ, 
of "all that He began both to do and teach" — 
not only are there four successive histories of His 



WHO IS HE? 15 

/ife, that so we " might know the certainty of 
these things/' but an uhimate purpose is dis- 
closed. ''These are written that ye might be- 
lieve that Jesus is the Christ, the 

Jolm XX, 31i 
Son of God, and that believing ye 

might have life through His name." The Acts 
of the Apostles give us also the most direct 
views of His person and offices in a record of 
the early preaching of the Gospel. The Epis- 
tles—nearly all beginning with the announce- 
ment of their writers as commissioned servants 
of Jesus Christ, and ending with ascriptions to 
Him or blessings in His name — are also filled 
with declarations of what He is, and what He 
has done, and the results of faith in Him. Then, 
finally, the closing book of the New Testament 
is " The Revelation of Jesus Christ" — a prophecy 
of Him in the future as the other portions are 
His record for the past. 

And as respects the Old Testament, Jesus 
Christ and His Apostles constantly .appealed to it 
as the only evidence of the kind then available. 
To the Jews, in their exasperation at His making 
himself equal with God, Jesus answered, " Search 

the Scriptures. . . . They are they 

1 ' 1 ^ ±'r JT J? Txri Jolm V. 18, 39. 

which testify of me. When ap- 



l6 WHO IS HE? 

pearing to His disciples after His resurrection, 

" beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 

T T_ .or, pounded unto them in all the Scrip- 
Luke XXIV. 27. -"^ ^ 

tures, the things coiicei-ning Hhii- 

self,^^ And again He said, "All things must 

be fulfilled which were written in the 

Luke xxiv. 44. , r a r i • i ^ 

law or Jvloses, and in the prophets, 
and in the psalms, coiicerfiiiig ??ieJ^ It was out 
of these Scriptures of the Old Testament that 
the Apostles reasoned, and "mightily convinced 
the Jews," "showing that Jesus was Christ." 
And one of them, linking the office of the 
written word with the preaching of Jesus Christ, 
declares that thus the revelation of the mystery 
so long kept secret is "now made manifest, and 

by the Scriptures of the prophets, ac- 

Rom. xvi. 26. ^' , ^ -, r .^ 

cordmg to the commandment of the 
everlasting God, 7nade knouon to all nations for 
the obediejice of faiths 

Now, if a volume of such size has indeed been 
written by inspiration of God, at such different 
periods of time, and through so many of His 
servants, and all this chiefly to testify of Christ, 
to make Him known for the obedience of faith, 
it would be strange indeed if its many pages no- 
where furnished a clear answer to the question, 



WHO IS HEf 17 

Who is He ? If it does not do more than this, 
and place that view of Him which it designs to 
give beyond all doubt to an unprejudiced mind, 
then an imperfection, that would inevitably con- 
demn any work of human authorship, is found 
in one the source of which is divine. 

If, however, we expect to find, in addition to 
what the Scriptures reveal as true of Jesus 
Christ, a solution also of every difficulty that 
reason can suggest, we then ask too much. We 
receive, without any such demand, the facts of 
science and the phenomena of nature — even 
those which no human intellect can fathom and 
explain, and some of which seem even contra- 
dictory. Both in the world of matter and in the 
world of mind we find sooner or later a limit to 
our powers of thought. And if it be so with 
things created, how must we expect the mystery 
to deepen when we turn to their Creator ! 
''Canst thou by searching find out God.'^ Canst 

thou find out the Almighty to perfec- 

^ -^ ^ Job xi. 7-9. 

tion ? It is high as heaven ; what 

canst thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst thou 

know ? The measure thereof is longer than the 

earth, and broader than the sea." An infinite 

mind, in the very nature of things, is beyond the 



l8 WHO IS HEf 

grasp of a finite mind. Nor are we called upon 
to believe what we cannot fully comprehend, 
upon any less authority than a Divine Revela- 
tion. Of that revelation by far the larger por- 
tion is clear and intelligible, and in the fullest 
sense reasonable. That it is a revelation suf- 
ficiently justifies all the remaining difficulties. It 
is no Arch-Deceiver that gives the challenge, 
bidding Reason halt, while summoning our Faith 
to pass on alone into dim, uncertain regions ; but 
it is a Guide from heaven that, leading Reason 
on far as her foot can follow, then points out to 
the keener eye of Faith the thing's beyond. It is 
the very triumph of Wisdom to await calmly 
the promised possession of higher powers. " For 

now we see through a erlass darklv ; 

1 Oor. xiii. 12. & & J » 

but then face to face : now I know in 

part ; but then shall I know even as also I am 

known." Nor is this growth in knowledge 

wholly reserved for a future world. For even 

as a child in his early lessons has often to apply 

the rules which he cannot yet understand, their 

practical working being his first need, so is it 

with the learner of divine truth. That truth 

grows clearer through its constant application ; 

even as Jesus said, " If any man will do His 



WHO IS HE? 19 

will, he shall know of the doctrine ; 

John vii. 17. 
whether it be of God, or whether I 

speak of myself." And let it be borne steadily 
in mind that, with whatever plausible theories 
of our own we attempt to remove these difficul- 
ties, we are driven directly to this alternative ; 
the fallible judgment of man on the one side ; 
on the other, the infallible word of God. Let 
it be remembered, also, as we advance to the 
consideration of the testimony of Holy Scripture, 
that however great the perplexity which detached 
passages may offer, whatever doubt may rest 
upon the correct rendering of some, or even the 
genuineness of a very few, yet still, if the cumu- 
lative evidence of many other portions sustain 
the same truth, such an uncertainty leaves us ab- 
solutely nothing with which to oppose it. No 
doctrine of vital importance is found dependent 
upon a single sentence ; and it would appear rea- 
sonable to somewhat adjust our estimate of the 
relative importance of these Divine teachings by 
the very frequency of their repetition. 



II. 




Jolm i. 3. 



Col. i. 16, 17. 



|H0 IS He, then? What saith the Scrip- 
ture? "All things were made by Him, 
and without Him was not anything 
made that was made." ''AH things 
were created by Him, and for Him, and He is 
before all things, and by Him all 
things consist." 
Can we not understand, then, how, in perfect 
accordance with these words, we read in the 
record of our creation, ''And God* said. Let us 
make man in our image after our 
likeness"? And does it not accord 
with this that the prophet Micah, in fixing the 
birthplace of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, said, 
"Out of thee shall He come forth, 
whose goings forth have been from 
of old, from everlasting ;" and that Isaiah gave 
among the august names of the child that should 

* Elohim, the plural expression for God, is used here 
and often elsewhere. 
20 



Gen. i. 26. 



Micali V. 2. 



WHO IS HE? 21 

be born, one that made Him known as "the 

Everlasting Father" ? 

Isa. ix. 6. 
Oh call not then any longer Him a 

creature who is thy Creator ! Call Him not a 

finite man, for man is but of yesterday, and his 

''days upon earth are a shadow." 

, . . Jobviii. 9. 

But this thou mayst say of Him — in 

inspired words of praise, that a Psalmist used 
when he called upon his God, and then an Apos- 
tle used as he spoke of Christ — "Thou Lord in 
the beginning hast laid the foundations of the 
earth ; and the heavens are the works pg_ ^.^ gg 27. 
of thine hands. They shall perish ; Heb. i. 10-12. 
but thou remainest. . . . Thou art the same, and 
thy years shall not fail." 

Who is He "^ One like thyself — a subject of 
" the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only 
wise God?" Does any word of His, spoken in 
the days of His humiliation, tempt thee to such a 
thought? Hear, then, the Apostle Peter as he 

fearlessly speaks of " the everlasting 

^ ^ , ^ 2 Pet. i. 11. 

kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 

Jesus Christ." Hear the prophet Daniel as he 

tells how he saw in the night visions, " And 

behold, one like the Son of man came with the 

clouds of heaven. . . . And there was given 



22 WHO IS HE f 

Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all 

people, nations and languages should serve Him ; 

His dominion is an everlasting dominion vs^hich 

shall not pass aw^ay ; and His kine- 
Ilaii.vii.13,14. F J' & 

dom that v^^hich shall not be de- 
stroyed." Listen to the Angel as he announces 
to Mary, His mother — '' He shall reign over the 

house of Jacob for ever : and of His 
Luke i. 33. , ^ 

kingdom there shall be no end." 

Note also how^ boldly, in the Epistle to the He- 
brews, the words of the psalmist are declared to 
be written of Christ — " Unto the Son he saith, 
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a 

sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre 
Het.i.S. . 

of thy kingdom." And then look at 

Him, who in the vision of John, is seen with a 

vesture dipped in blood and followed by the 

armies in heaven ; and read the name written 

upon his vesture and on his thigh — 
Eev. xix, 16. 

" King of kings and Lord of 

LORDS." And that there be no doubt who He is 

who bears this name, read yet again where it is 

said of the JLajnb^ He is Lord of 
Eev. xvii. 14. 

lords and King of kings.. Does not 

this suffice? Then hearken yet again as Isaiah 

the prophet tells of the awful glory of that 



WHO IS HE f 



23 



a.vi.1-9. 



vision, when he '' saw the Lord sitting upon a 
throne high and lifted up ;" while the seraphim 
cried one unto another, and said, '' Holy, holy, 
holy, is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is 
full of His glory." The prophet in his fear ex- 
claims, ^' Woe is me ! for I am undone ; . . . . 
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of 
hosts." A message is given him ; '' Go and tell 
this people. Hear ye indeed but un- 
derstand not ; and see ye indeed but 
perceive not." Now this very message is spoken 
of by John as fulfilled when, '' though Jesus had 
done so many miracles before them, yet they be- 
lieved not on Him ;" and after giving in full this 
prophecy of their blindness and hardness in re- 
jecting Him, he pronounces the whole vision a 

revelation of Christ, by adding, ^ . .. ., 
' *^ ^' John xu. 41. 

'' These things said Esaias, when he 
saw His glory, and spake of UimJ^ 

Who is He then } Oh answer like that Israel- 
ite, indeed, in whom was no guile — " Thou art 

the Son of God ; thou art the King 

John i. 49. 
of Israel." 

And own Him not as thy King only, but as 

thy Judge. Do we find that prophecy fulfilled 

which foretold so minutely the suflferings of 



24 WHO IS HE f 

Mic. V. 1 Jesus — '' They shall smite the Judge 

Matt.xxvii.30. of Israel with a rod upon the 
cjieek," — then let us consider that other prophe- 
cies await their no less sure fulfilment ; — that it is 
written, " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed 

from heaven with His miehty aneels, 

2Tliess.i.7,8. . . & J & ' 

in flaming fire, taking vengeance 

upon them that know not God and that obey 

not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" that 

it is written, " We must all appear 

2 Cor. V. 10. , ^ , . 1 ^ ^1 • « 

beiore the judgment seat of Christ ; 

that it is written again in words as clear as they 

are solemn, " The Lord Tesus Christ 

.... shall judge the quick and the 

dead at His appearing and His kingdom." 

And therefore let thy faith in Him be the faith 

of one, who, hanging on a cross beside Him, 

while the rulers derided Him, and the Soldiers 

mockSd Him, and the other malefactor railed on 

Him, yet said unto Jesus, " Lord re- 
Luke xxiii. 42. 

member me, when thou contest into 

thy kingdom. ^^ 



III. 




Isa. xxxii. 2, 



[IHO IS He? Is there yet a doubt? Why 
does He call Himself the Son of man? 
Blessed be His name, He was the Son 
of man ! But could the words spoken of Him 
as man be spoken of any other of all the sons of 
men? The prophet Isaiah foretold Him as a 
man — but, oh, such a man ! — " A man shalt be 
as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert 
from the tempest ; as rivers of water 
in a dry place, as the shadow of a 
great rock in a weary land !" 

The promise of God is heard ages before His 
appearing. " I will make a man 
more precious than fine gold ; even 
a man than the golden wedge of Ophir ;" and 
His herald proclaims His nearer coming — 
'^ The man that is my fello%v^ saith 
the Lord of hosts." 

He called himself indeed the Son of man — 

but how.^ — "The Son of man hath power on 

25 



Isa. xiii. 12. 



26 WHO IS HEP 

Matt. ix. e. earth to forgive sins.'' " The Son of 

Matt. XX. ^8. j^^^-^ came ... to give His life a 

ransom for many." The Son of man shall send 

forth His angels, and they shall gather out of 

His kingdom all things that offend 
Matt, xiii, 41. 

and them which do iniquity." And 

again, ''When the Son of man shall come in 

His glory, and all the holy angels 
Matt. XXV. 31. . 

with Him, t/ie7z shall He sit upon 

the tJu'one of His glory T The Son of man, 

indeed; but not even then limited to a human 

existence upon earth ; for He said, " No man 

hath ascended up to heaven but He 
Joliii iii, 13. 

that came down from heaven, even 

the Son of man which is in heaven,^^ And 

His very being as man gives Him a right to be 

also the Judge of man ; for He speaks of the 

Father as eivinsr Him authority to 
John Y. 27. . r . 7 TT 

execute judgment also, because He 

was the Son of man. Having often foretold that 

the Son of man should " first suffer many things, 

and be rejected and be slain," there came a time 

when He could say, " The hour is 
Jolm xii. 23. , ,0 "" r 1111 

come that the bon of man should be 

glorified." And in that glory Stephen beheld 

Him when he said, " Behold, I see the heavens 



\ 



WHO IS HEf 27 

opened, and the Son of man stand- 
ing on the right hand of God. 
And in that glory John saw Him — still, " like 
unto the Son of man," but '' His countenance 
was as the sun shineth in his strength," and 
'' His voice as the sound of many waters ;" 
while He proclaimed to the disciple who had so 
often leaned on Jesus' bosom, but now, when he 
saw Him, fell at His feet as dead, '' I am the 
first and the last : I am He that liveth and was 

dead, and behold I am alive for ever- 

A IT 11 r Rev. i. 13-18. 

more. Amen ; and have the keys of 

hell and of death." The Apostles speak of Him 
as man, but the words they use most plainly in- 
dicate an assumed nature. They speak of Him 
as " made in the likeness of men," as '' being 
found in fashion as a man," as becoming a par- 
taker of flesh and blood. But they say also that 
through this man the forgiveness of sins is 
preached, and by that man will the world be 
judged. They say that " this m,an^ after He had 

offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever 

.11 1 ^ ^ , Seb. X. 12, 13. 
sat dow^n on the right hand of Grod ; 

from henceforth expecting till His enemies be 

made His footstool." 

Thus do all the Scriptures speak of Him, 



28 WHO IS HE? 

whom it behooved in all things to be made like 

unto his brethren — of " the last Adam" — "the 

second man, the Lord from heaven ;'' the " one 

Mediator between God and man, the man Christ 

Jesus ;" " the days-man betwixt us that can lay 

His hand upon us both." 

What shall we say then but this? — borrowing 

the assurance of Divine Inspiration upon a truth 

which its plainest declarations leave unexplained 

— that while He was " made of the seed of David 

according to the flesh," He was also declared to 

be the Son of God with power, ac- 
Eom. i. 3, 4. ,. . . . ^ , ,. , 

cordmg to the spu'it of holmess, by 

the resurrection from the dead ;" that so He has 

passed into the heavens as our " Great High 

Priest, Jesus the Son of God " — a 
Joliiii.12. / u ' , 

bon ot man, who gives to as many 

as receive Him and believe on His name, power 

to become the sons of God ! Behold the Man ! 

And, O doubting heart ! wilt thou not say as 

the Centurion said, when he stood over against 

the cross of Jesus, and saw Him give up the 

ehost, " Truly this man was the 
Mark XV. 39. ^ ^ ,,, 

Son of God !" 



lY. 




UT who is He ? What shall be said then 
of those solemn assertions of the unity of 
tlie Godhead : " Hear, O Is- Deut. vi. 4. 
rael, the Lord our God is one Lord"— ^^^' ^^''^ ^' 
" I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory 
will I not give to another." Shall there be another 
God save Him ? Shall He be robbed of any por- 
tion of His glory? What saith the Scripture? 
Did Jesus Christ claim to be another? Did He 
not say, '' He that hath seen me hath Jolinxiv.9. 
seen the Father" — ''I and my Jolii^^i.SO. 
Father are One." Did He therefore rob the 
Father of His glory, when He declared it as 
His own will, '' that all men should 
honor the Son even as they honor 
the Father?" Did the Apostles proclaim an- 
other w^hen they said of Jesus Christ, ''Who is 
over all, God blessed for ever;" and Rom. ix. 5. 
"This is the true God and eternal i John v. 20. 
life ;" and ascribed " to the only wise '^^^^ 25. 

29 



John V. 23. 



30 WHO IS HE f 

God our Saviour glory and majesty, dominion 
and power?" 

Did the Apostle Paul rob the Father of His 
glory, and give it to another, when, after speak- 
ing of Him, ''who being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God," 
yet " made Himself of no reputation, and took 
upon Him the form of a sei-vaiii, . . . humbled 
Himself and became obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross ;" he goes on to say, in rapt 
and glowing language, " Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name 
which is above every name : that at the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in hea- 
ven, and things in earth, and things 
Phil. ii. 6-11. , , , , , 

under the earth ; and that every 

tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord 

to the glory of God the Father." What though 

Jehovah had said by His prophet, " There is no 

God else beside 77ie, Look unto me and be ye 

saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, 

and there is none else, I have sworn by myself, 

the word is eone out of my mouth in 
Isa. xlv. 21-23. 

righteousness and shall not return, 

that M7ito me every knee shall bow, every 

tongue shall swear," — yet it is still no robbery 



WHO IS HEP 31 

that the name at which we bow should be the 

name of Jesus, and that the solemn confession of 

every tongue should be that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Even this is ''''to the glory of God the Fathe^'T 

In the very strength of these declarations of His 

unity — ''''no God else beside me^^ — ''''none else^^ 

— ''''look unto me and be ye saved^^ — we find 

fresh authority for receiving, with no diluted 

meaninsf, the words of His Apostle, 

^ ^ ' 1 Tim. iii. 16. 

"God was manifest in the flesh." 

The most critical reading might possibly reject 

some of these expressions, and the most candid 

interpretation might find precedent elsewhere for 

giving a lower significance to others. But there 

is a consistency in them as a whole that defies 

rejection, by presenting to those who solve their 

difficulties thus, still greater ones. That there is 

a sense, and a high and true one, in which the 

Father and the Son may be spoken of as " One" 

— "One God" — that there is also a sense in 

which they must be distinguished, in which the 

Son, as taking upon Him our nature also, fills 

for a time a subordinate and dependent place — 

is the great mystery which human phrases, for 

the most part, confuse. The only illustration 

which it seems to admit, is the recognition of 



32 WHO IS HE ? 

similar mysteries elsewhere. The sacred writers 

announce it boldly, and then leave it. In the 

words already partially repeated, neither the 

Psalmist nor the Apostle pauses to explain the 

sudden transition of the name of God from One 

w^ho is addressed to the One who speaks : "Unto 

the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God^ is for ever 

and ever ; . . . Thou hast loved righteousness 

and hated iniquity ; therefore God^ even thy 

XT T. . n n God. hath anointed thee with the oil 
Heo 1. 8, 9. 

of gladness above thy fellows." And 

so, in the words of Jesus, He no less freely 

acknowledges the earthly humiliation — '' My 

Father is greater than I " — than, see- 
Joka xiv. 28. 

ing the hour of His change coming, 

He calmly claims the heavenly honors that had 

been ever His ; in words of prayer, indeed, but 

such a prayer as none of us could dare to make 

our own : '' And now, O Father, glorify thou me 

ivlth thine own self^ with the glory 

John xvii. 5. . 

which I had zvith thee before the 

world wasJ^ 

Who is He, then? Oh, remember that it was 

one who doubted — one to whom the risen Jesus 

showed the print of the nails in His hands, the 

deep wound of the spear in His side — the marks 



WHO IS HE'f 



33 



of His suffering humanity — who yet answered and 

*said unto Him, '' My Lord and my 

^ -, .„ rr^i Tx. John XX. 26-29. 

God 1 Thou canst not see Hun 

Hke Thomas, that thou mayst believe ; yet re- 
member that Jesus said to him, " Blessed are 
they that have not seen and yet have believed.'' 





Matt. xvi. 16. 



i|HO IS He? What more must we learn 
of Christ ? Owning Him as our Creator, 
as our King, as our Judge — ready to an- 
swer to His question—" Whom say 
ye that I am ?" " Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the Hving God" — shrinking not to say 
with His apostle — '' In Him dwell- 
eth all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily" — w^iat shall next be added to such- names 
as these ? Let us turn to the words of that disci- 
ple whose full faith and full confession were so 
honored by his. Lord as to draw from Him that 
Matt. xvi, 15- strong assertion — ''Upon this rock 
I will build my Church." The for- 
given, converted Peter becomes the foremost 
Apostle. What more w^ill he now say of that 
Jesus who has been crucified and risen from the 
dead ? " Neither is there salvation in any other ; 
for there is none other name under 

A p+Q ITT T Q ^ 

heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved,^^ 

34 



WHO IS HE P 35 

At the coming of Christ upon earth it was a 
Saviour and His salvation that both angels 
and prophets announced. '' Thou 
shalt call His name Jesus," said Ga- 
briel to Mary, His mother, " for He shall save His 
people from their sins." '' Good tidings of great 
joy," said the angel of the Lord unto the shep- 
herds, sore afraid as the glory of the Lord shone 
round about them — " Unto you is born this day, 
in the city of David, a Saviour^ 
w^hich is Christ the Lord." And 
when Simeon, to whom it had been revealed by 
the Holy Ghost that he should not see death be- 
, fore he had seen the Lord's Christ, came by the 
Spirit into the Temple, what saw he there as the 
object of these special revelations, made repeat- 
edly to one who waited for the consolation of 
Israel? ^' The child yesus^^ brought there ac- 
cording to the custom of the law — only to human 
sight a little helpless infant of but three-and- 
thirty-days, out of that life of three- 
and-thirty years. Yet he took Him 
up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 

peace, according to thy word : for 

, ^7 7 / • >3 Luke ii. 29, 30. 

mine eyes have seen I ny salvation: 



36 WHO IS HE J? 

'' An ho7'7i of salvatioii^^ said Zacharias, as he 
prophesied, filled with the Holy Ghost, *' has 
God raised up for us." The mercy long prom- 
ised was to be now performed — " that we, being 
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might 
serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteous- 
ness before Him all the days of our life." Such 
was the salvation ; and it was honor enough for 
his own child, over whose birth he was rejoicing 

to give knowledge of it, as '' the 

Luke i. 67-79. 1 ^ r u tt- i' ^» 

prophet of the Highest. 

And w4th what strength and emphasis of lan- 
guage do all the Apostles speak of Him as the 
Saviour ! '' This is a faithful saying, and worthy 

of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 

ITim.i. 15. . ^ ^1 ij . 

came into the w^orld to save sm- 

nersT " And we have seen and do testify that 
the Father sent the Son to be the 
Saviour of the lAJorld^ " Where- 
fore He is able also to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by Him, 

Heb. vii. 25. . tt y- .\ ^ ^ - ,. 

seeing He ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for them." 

Can we not believe on Him for these sayings, 
until, through a closer and more personal know- 
ledge, we can say, as the Samaritans whom a 



WHO IS HE ? 



37 



woman of their city had told of Christ : " Now 
we believe, not because of thy saying ; for we 
have heard Him ourselves, and 
know that this is indeed the Christ, 
the Saviour of the worlds 



John iv. 39-42. 




VI. 




ND how IS jt that He saves us ? — for this 
is but another phase of our question, 
Who is He ? There are w^ho call Him 
Saviour, and are willing to take Him as their 
blessed Example ; or still further to recognize the 
attractive power and vast moral influence of His 
life and death in stirring our hearts through 
such sublime self-sacrifice to a kindred devotion. 
There are those w4io claim that a warm personal 
attachment to Him, in whose character they find 
their loftiest ideal, and then to humanity for His 
sake, has power, when carried to the pitch of 
passionate enthusiasm, to purify the soul and 
raise it above the reach of temptation. And 
there are others who own Him as their Saviour, 
but look for His salvation solely in the cleansing 
power of His Holy Spirit ; yet all agreeing in 
this, that His sufferings and death upon the 
cross and the blood which He shed on Calvary, 
whatever their deep significance, were not the 

38 



WHO IS HE P 39 

procuring causes of our salvation — not the basis 
of our acceptance with God — not that by which 
we are justified — not the proper objects of our 
faith. 

And here upon this ground we find ourselves 
in the very thick of the battle — the fight of faith. 
Unbelief has recalled her forces from the too ex- 
posed front of the mere humanity of Christ, and 
holds them now in the shelter of a dubious 
Cross, an heroic sacrifice. She loudly vaunts 
that thus she protects the very highest morality, 
and she dares to call it holiness. She scoffs like a 
Goliath at those who confess so much of sin and 
its forgiveness, and taunts them with a righteous- 
ness not real, because it is imputed. Yet the 
humblest believer may find his ready and suffi- 
cient defence, '' the smooth stones of the brook," 
lying everywhere along that blessed stream of 
Divine Inspiration, which he knows so well for 
its gladness and refreshment. 

Therefore again let us ask. What saith the 
Scripture.? What is its repeated testimony.? 
And if the objection be ever springing up that the 
words we read are but a figure, that such modes 
of expression were usual with those who wrote 
the Scriptures, and are not to be received to the 



40 WHO IS HEf 

letter, but must be applied with a meaning more 
intelligible or more spiritual, let us also consider 
in what a variety of ways we find the same 
truth repeated ; in historic and ceremonial types, 
in figure, in allegory, in lofty strains of prophecy ; 
but also in the simplest statement, the most un- 
adorned language, the most close and solid argu- 
ment. Can it indeed be possible that those Holy 
Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto 
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, 
after all present us only with a shadow of truth 
and leave us to look for the reality elsewhere — 
not in revelation, but in reason ! If so, then 
surely that is not a " form of sound words," 
which we are exhorted to hold fast. 

How then is it that He saves us? All proud 
philosophic systems, all notions of mere natural 
exaltation, all self-reliant schemes whatever, are 
utterly swept away before the irresistible power 
of one simple saying — ^''^y grace are ye saved, 

throus^h faith ; and that not of your- 
Epli.ii.8. . 

selves : it is the gift of God''' The 

same truth appears, more expanded and won- 

drously guarded from all one-sidedness, in the 

Epistle to Titus — ''After that the kindness and 

love of God our Saviour toward man appeared. 



WHO IS HE P 41 

not by .works of righteousness which we have 

done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by 

the washing of regeneration, and re- 

^ ^ Titnsm.4-7. 

newing of the Holy Ghost, which 

He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ 
our Saviour ; that, being justified by His grace, 
we should be made heirs according to the hope 
of eternal life." Not our works, not our right- 
eousness ; for there behind, whatever the present 
life, is the old score which had just been summed 
up — of the foolish, the disobedient, the deceived — 
serving pleasure or something worse than pleas- 
ure, living in malice and envy, hating one an- 
other. The debt due upon this long account — 

which is signed by no base crim- 

^ Titusiii. 3. 

inal, but by an Apostle for himself 

and such as he — must be met. And so it is 
Mercy that saves us — Grace that justifies us. 
And yet we are saved in a way that secures a 
life wholly new, and the constant support and 
development of that life ; or regeneration and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost. It is this great 
result of real holiness which is here spread out 
before us as it flows down to us with its abun- 
dant outpouring* through Jesus Christ our Sa- 



42 WHO IS HEP 

viour. Let us now turn elsewhere to trace the 
Fountain-head so clearly indicated. 

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, up 
to a certain point he recognized his divine cha- 
racter and mission — "We know that thou art a 
Teacher come from God." A Teacher ; and so 
doubtless he was eager to learn from Him, and 
to add some new merit, it might be, to the already 
solid groundwork of his own religious character. 
With what amazement must he have heard the 
w^ords that taught him that, instead of adding to 
his knowledge, the very foundations of his faith 
had yet to be laid ! that, instead of coming to 
Jesus as a Teacher, as a condemned man he 
must come to Him as a Saviour to find life 
itself! ''Jesus answered and said unto him, 

Verily, verily, I say unto iJiee^ Ex- 
Jolm iii. 3. 

cept a man be born again, he cannot 

see the kingdom of God." The objection, the 

diflSculty, the seeming impossibility, call forth 

the reassertion of its absolute necessity. " Verily, 

verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of 

water and of the Spirit, he cannot 

enter into the kingdom of God." 

" Of water and of the Spirit :" what is this but 

the same process which we have before consid- 



WHO IS HEf 43 

ered — the laver of regeneration* and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost. But, now, in what follows 
we find our Lord giving us a further answer as 
to how it is that He saves us. Let us follow 
reverently whither He leads us to look upon the 
vSource of all our life : " As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son 
of Man be lifted up : that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." What did that serpent of 
brass do for the stricken, dying Israelite .^^ '-'- It 
shall co?ne to pass^' said the Lord to 
Moses, " that every 07te that is bit- 
ten, when he looketh upon it shall live." 
Read the words of Jesus again, and trace the 

likeness : '' That whosoever believeth 

TT. -Ill .11 7 Jo^^ lii- 15. 

m Him should not perish, but have 

eternal life^ What then the looking upon the 

serpent did, the believing in Jesus does. What 

that did for the body, this does for the soul. It 

heals the deadly wound of sin. It gives eternal 

life. Nor need we pry too curiously behind that 

promise, " // shall come to passJ^ They tasted 

not their remedy ; they touched it not. Only the 

eye could reach that distant serpent of brass set 

* Aovrpov TTaXeyyeveGLa^. 



44 WHO IS HEf 

up upon its pole. But nevertheless it came to 

pass, that as they looked, they lived. In a far-off 

land, and in an age now^ dim with distance, the 

Son of Man w^as lifted up upon His Cross ; and 

still it comes to pass that as \nq look and believe 

we live. And to the end of the w^orld w^ill the 

call of Christ crucified be heard : "A Saviour ! 

there is none beside me ! Look unto 
Isa. xlv. 21, 22. 

me and be ye saved, all the ends of 

the earth !" 

And now are there other ways, or is this the 

only way.^ On a subject so solemn, so fraught 

with life and death, let the Saviour Himself 

answer, even as He did to Nicodemus : '' He 

that believeth on Him is not condemned ; but he 

that believeth not, is condemned already, because 

he hath not believed in the name of 
Jolm iii. 18. 

the only begotten Son of God." 

Condemned already ! And only one way of 

escape is shown us — to believe on the Son of 

man who was lifted up — in the Saviour, who 

said, " When ye have lifted up the Son of man, 

T 1- •■• no then shall ye know that I am He ;" 
Jolm viii. 28. -^ ' 

Jolin viii. 24. ''If ye believe not that I am He, ye 
shall die in your sins." 



WHO IS HEP 45 

And it was such a Saviour, and such a salva- 
tion that had been foretold. In the book of 
Isaiah w^e find a prophecy of the humiliation of 
Christ — so strange a description of the coming 
Messiah, so wholly unlikely in itself to attract 
attention and be welcomed as true — that the 
prophet even begins by saying, " Who hath be- 
lieved our report? And to whom is the arm of 
the Lord revealed?" What words are these ? — 
''A tender plant" — ''A root out of a dry 
ground," '' with no form nor comeliness" — " no 
beauty that we should desire Him" — '' despised 
and rejected" — ''a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief" — ''oppressed and afflicted," 
''brought as a lamb to the slaughter" — "num- 
bered with the transgressors." Nor is it merely 
shown that " He was despised and we esteemed 
Him not ;" but also, " We did esteem Him 
stricken, smitten of God^ and afflicted." For 
even from such a depth as this was to come up 
that cry, more fearful than the darkness over all 
the land, "My God ! my God ! why 
hast thou forsaken me ?" And why 
all this? Again and again in this remarkable 
chapter, in varied and emphatic language, we 
find the awful wherefore of this shame and 



4^ WHO IS HE / 

sufferino: and death, even to a nine- 
Isa. liii. 1-12. ° 

fold repetition : 

*' But He was wounded for onr transgressions : 
He was bruised for our iniquities : 
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him : 
With His stripes ive are healed ; 
The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all : 
For the transgression oi my people was He smitten : 
Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin : 
He shall bear l^eir iniquities : 
He bare the sin of ma?iy.'^ 

It is but the clearer development of this same 
truth when the Apostle Paul says of "Jesus our 
Lord" — •• Who was delhered for our offences^ 
and was raised again for our justification. 
^ . Therefore. h€\\\^ justified by faith^ 

andT. 1. we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." And this atonement, 
that •• saves from wrath." and brings us to joy 
Eom. iv. 5. ''in God" — this "• counting of faith 

Eom. Y. 11, 15. ^^^ righteousness,"— is a " free gift," 
offered to all — a world-wide remedy — bringing 
life to the many tlirough the death of One. 

— " And I. if I be lifted up from thet 

Jolm xii. 32, 33. 

earth, will draw all men unto me." 

" This said Jesus, signifying what death He 

should die." 



WHO IS HE f 47 

But how intense the interest added to those 
words of Isaiah, as we hear in the Acts of the 
Apostles of the man of Ethiopia, Candace's hon- 
ored treasurer, returning from his worship in 
Jerusalem, and reading, as he sat in his chariot, 
• this very place in the Scriptures. The Spirit 
who had inspired it eight hundred years before, 
gave now the command to Philip, " Go near 
and join thyself unto this chariot." '' Of whom 
speaketh the prophet this.^" was the perplexed 
inquiry : '' How can I understand except somG 
man should guide me V " Then Philip opened his 

mouth and beMn at the same Scrip- 
Acts viii. 26-39. 
ture and preached unto him Jesus." 

O thou who readest the same Scripture now, 
canst thou '' believe with all thine heart ?" Canst 
thou openly confess as he did, " I believe that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" Canst thou 
believe that He who bare the sin of many, has 
borne thy €\wl: Then, as the Ethiop went upon 
his way rejoicing, so go thou also upon thy hea- 
venward way, rejoicing in Christ Jesus — not see- 
ing Him, indeed, but believing and loving, and 
rejoicing '' with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory," ''receiving the end of thy 
faith, even the salvation of thy soul." 



VII. 




Jolm viii, 56. 



OR was it only by direct prophecy that, 
Christ and His salvation were foretold. 
We find in Him the Antitype of almost 
countless types, each giving a glimpse of His 
fulness. Jesus has told us that Abraham re- 
joiced to see His day ; that he saw it 
and was glad. May we not believe 
that others also saw through those fleeting 
shadows the eternal Truth.? For there " sprang 
from him as many as the stars of the sky in 
multitude, who all died in faith, not having re- 
ceived the promises, but having seen them afar 
off, and were persuaded of them and 
embraced them." In that childhood 
of the Church they may have learned from such_ 
pictures what we now learn through words. 
They were taught, we know, the holiness of 
God, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and 
the easy defilements that cut ofi^ their souls from 
blessing. Placed under a law that was '" holy 

48 



Heb. xi. 12, 13. 



WHO IS HE ? 49 

and just and good," and yet '' weak through the 

ilesh " — consenting to it, but not per- 

Romvii. 12-18. 
forming it — two needs were con- 
stant and imperative — a priest and a sacrifice. 
The Scriptures leave us in no doubt at all as to 
the figurative nature of all these ordinances un- 
der the Old Covenant. But we are also forbid- 
den to extend such an interpretation beyond its 
close. For fourteen hundred years the Lord 
thus trained for Himself a people by the law. 
Through fourteen hundred years of type and 
shadow, the blood of bullocks and of lambs had 
been flowing day by day, in obedience to His 
claim : '' The life of the flesh is in the 
blood. It is the blood that maketh 
an atonement for the soul." Was it but a figure 
still, when John the Baptist cried at the coming 
of Jesus, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the 
world .^" A figure still, when Jesus said, ''This 
is my blood of the new Testament, 
which is shed for many for the re- 
mission of sinsi^" Why, also, do we find in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, continuous chapters con- 
trasting the '' figures for the time then present" 
and the ''good things to come?" How sharply 



Heb. k. 22. 



50 WHO IS HEf 

the line is drawn between the ''blood of goats 
and calves" and " His own blood" — between the 
patterns of things in the heavens, and " the hea- 
venly things themselves " that were purified with 

better sacrifices, when Christ ap- 

Heb.ix. 1-26. , .11. 

peared to put away sni by the sacri- 
fice of Himself. How firmly laid are those step- 
ping-stones of argument, over which we are led 
from type to Antitype — from the old covenant to 
the new — from the law to Christ. First, " Al- 
most all things are by the law purged 
with blood ; and without shedding 
of blood is no remission." But " It 
Heb. X. 4. is not possible that the blood of 
bulls and of goats should take away 
Heb. X. 10. sin." Then, "We are sanctified 
through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ." Therefore, " Their 
sins and iniquities will I remember 
no more." And finally, " Where 
emission of these is, there is no 
more offering for sin." Having 
brought us thus far, the Apostle now points out 
to us, in words of joyful assurance, that " new 

and living way," leading into the 

Heb. X. 19, 20. , , . ^ ^ ^ ^ ^1 ^ 

holiest, and declares that we may 



Heb. X. 17. 



Heb. X. 18. 



WHO IS HE? 51 

enter boldly by the blood of Jesus. Yet he lin- 
gers a moment for one rnore contrast — the death 
without mercy for the despiser of Moses' law, 
and the sorer punishment that awaited those, who 
sinning wilfully after they had received the 
knowledge of the truth, ''counted 
the blood of the Covenant an unholy 
thing." 

And in no cautious phrases, with no hint of 
our danger in misapprehending them, do all 
the Apostles speak of this "one sacrifice for 
sins,'* and ''the blood of the everlasting cov- 
enant." 

What purged their conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God? "The blood of 
Christ." What cleansed them from Heb. ix. 14. 
all sin.? " The blood of Jesus Christ." iJolmi. 7. 
With what v^ere His saints redeem- 
ed.? "With the precious blood of , t. . . -,« 
^ 1 Pet. 1. 19. 

Christ." How were they who once 

were far off made nieh? "By the 

^ ^ Eph. ii. 13. 

blood of Christ." What was the 

purchase paid for the Church of 

God.? " His own blood." How did Acts xx. 28. 

they overcome " that old Serpent, 

called the Devil, and Satan which deceiveth the 



52 WHO IS HBP 

whole world"? "By the blood of 
Rev. xii. 9-11. 

the Lamb." Where did they wash 

their robes and make them white? 
Rev. vii. 14. "In the blood of the Lamb." Set 
forth as our propitiation, through 
faith in what were we to claim this? 
Rom. iii. 25. " Through faith in His blood." Jus- 
tified freely by the grace of God, still 
by what is this effected? "Justified 
Rom. V. 9. byHisblood."' Again, through what 
have we redemption and the forgive- 
ness of sins ? " Through His blood." 
"Christ our passover is sacrificed for 
us." What promise is renewed in that? — what 
signifies that Passover? '-''The blood shall be to 
1 Cor. V. 7. y^^ ^^^ ^ token upon the houses 
Ex. xii. 13. where ye are : and when I see the 
blood I will fass over you '^ 

We must admit indeed a partial metaphor in 
tnany of these expressions. But while the 
figures vary, the blood remains the same. There 
can be no literal sprinkling of it, no actual 
bathing in it ; but take away the simple force of 
its own meaning, and what remains to cause one 
Apostle to pause, in the very beginning of a 
most practical Epistle, to dwell with exultation 



WHO IS HEP 53 

on "the sprinkling of the blood of 

f 1 Pet. i. 1-21. 

Jesus Christ," and another to inter- 
rupt the brief preface of a most important reve- 
lation with an outburst of reverent thanksgiving, 

" Unto Him that loved us and v^ashed 

Rev. i. 5. 
us from our sins in His own blood'^ ? 

There is a very practical test of the meaning 
which we most naturally understand such words 
to convey, in the simple fact that those who do 
not thus accept them, avoid them. There is no 
significance left for which to cherish them. But 
they who have found "peace through the blood 
of His Cross," will not be slack to make mention 
of it. They will plead its power in their pray- 
ers. They will sound it in praise for ever. 

Oh fear not then to draw nigh unto that 
Throne, in the midst of which stands "a Lamb 
as it had been slain," and to join thy voice with 
the voice of those who sing a new song — "Thou 

wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 

Rev. V. 6-9, 
God by thy blood, out of every kin- 
dred and tongue and people and nation." 



yiii. 




UT here we are met with a perplexity 
not thus easily removed — a perplexity 
perhaps the most widespread of all, 
and the more insinuating as it often owes its 
origin to a recoil from a mere mask of Faith, or 
a reaction from some overstrained dogma. Were 
it wholly a replying against God, one might well 
shrink to repeat such words. ''Who is He, 
then.^" it is said ; " whom do you thus make this 
Saviour, but a Victim appeasing the wrath of 
God against sin, and averting His anger from us 
by the sacrifice of one so innocent and holy ? Is 
this then the iron heel which is to crush our in- 
stinctive belief in the love and goodness of our 
Father, and doom us to struggle for ever with an 
irrepressible conviction of His cruelty? How 
could we accept salvation upon such terms? 
How could we selfishly rejoice in such injustice ?" 
Alas ! indeed, for those whose Bibles are but 
palimpsests ! who find those broad lines of 

truth, and clear, bold characters of heavenly 
54 



WHO IS HE ? 55 

wisdom, overwritten with the narrow creeds, and 
cramped, unsteady thoughts of men ! Our ap- 
peal must be away from this, to that which was 
written by inspiration of God. We are search- 
ing for a God of love ; and what say the Scrip- 
tures? They tell us that "God so loved the 
worlds that He gave His only begotten Son, that 

whosoever believeth in Him should 

Jolm iii. 16. 
not perish, but have everlasting life." 

They tell us that " God cojnmendeth His love 

toward us, in that while we were yet 

Eom. V, 8. 
sinners, Christ died for us." Turn 

where we will among such messages as these — 

"God is love," "Herein is love," "In this was 

manifested the love of God," " Here- 

1 . i.1 1 » ttr^ J 1 Jolm iv. 8-10. 

by perceive we the love, " God even 

1 John iii. 16. 
our Father which hath loved us," 

2 Thess. ii. 16. 

" God who is rich in mercy for His -r. i .. „ 

•J hpn, 11. 4. 

great love w'herewith He loved us" 
— and what is it that follows and supplies their 
point and proof } It is this gift of grace, this 
propitiation, this sending of His only begotten 
Son, this laying down of His life for us. And 
where is the suggestion of a forced sacrifice in 
any saying of the Saviour? We hear, in the 
language of prophecy, His ready words, " Lo, I 



56 WHO IS HE f 

come ! . . . I delight to do thy will ^ 
PSi xli 7j 8i 

O my God !" We hear him saying, 

J , "I lay down my life for the sheep. . 

/ lay it down of myself ^ The hour 

draws nigh for Him to be led as a lamb to the 

slaughter. Is there still no shrinking? We 

hear, as it were, His inmost musing — "Now is 

my soul troubled, and what shall I 
John xii. 27. 

say? Father, save me from this 

hour : but for this cause ca7ne I unto this 

houry And so of the Father we can say, "He 

that spared not His own Son, but 
Rom. viii, 32. 

delivered Him up for us all." And 

of the Son we can say, "Who loved 
Gal. ii. 20. , ^ 

me, and gave Himself for me." In 

the perfect oneness of their nature and will was 
our redemption planned and wrought. "Be- 
hold what manner of love the Father 
1 John iii. 1, 

hath bestowed upon us !" Therefore 

let our adoring love flow back, an undivided 
stream. 

Councils and synods may have issued their 
dark decrees, and stern divines have drawn up 
their inexorable formularies ; but we are called 
upon by the authorized Ambassadors of God to 
listen to His own offer of reconciliation. Can 



WHO IS HEf 57 

we charge either them or their message with any 
want of tenderness, as they announce it? — " To 
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciHng the 
world unto Himself, not imputing their tres- 
passes unto them. . . . Now then we are Am- 
bassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech 

you by us : we pray you in Christ's 

^ ^ 1 J ^ 2 Cor. V. 19, 20. 

stead, be ye reconciled to God." 

" But how," persists some objector, " can I 

honorably accept this.? For I read further in 

this proposed treaty, and I find the ground of the 

ofler, ' For He hath made Him to 

' . 2 Cor. V. 21. 

be sin for us, who knew no sin.' 

And why should the innocent suffer at all for the 

guilty, even if it be willingly } What justice is 

there in such terms .?" 

So far as we ourselves are concerned, it is not 

justice that we receive. Another has suffered 

for us — " beine put to death" — " the 

^ ^ 1 Pet. iii. 18. 

just for the unjust, that He might 

bring us to God ;" and that which reaches us is 

something far higher than justice. It is Mci^cy, 

Do we, indeed, murmur at that? But as to the 

justice of God in itself, in permitting another to 

bear our penalty, who are we who talk so freely 

about His justice.? — we, of whom scarcely can 



58 WHO IS HEf 

two agree in adjusting its claims upon each 
other ; we. of whom the wisest and the best find 
their perplexit}* the sorest to uphold securely 
Law and Order and Discipline, and yet escape 
the dangers of too severe a justice on the one 
hand, and too lax a mercv on the other ; we, 
who find our forbearance to the guiltv end in- 
peril to the innocent ; we. who own it the un- 
solved problem of all human governments, to 
keep the law armed with terror for the prevention 
of crime, while so softening it as to inspire the 
criminal with the hope of restoration. Yet this 
is the ditiiculty which has been met by the 
Gospel. Christ did, indeed, " ma^ify the law 
and make it honorable." And becoming both a 
Ransom and a Suretj^, so saved the sinner as to 
save him fi-om his sin. The full terms of the 
offered treat}' provide for this : •* He hath made 
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin : that zve 

vii^ht be made the ri^hteous?iess of 
2 Cor. V. 21. ^ . . ^ ^ 

God in Hlm,''^ We may compre- 
hend it more or less clearly, but there is the As- 
surance, and these are the Signature and the 

Seal : ••^4 /'?^st God and a Saviour J^ 
Kom. iii. 26. 

'• yust and the yustijier of him 

which believeth in Jestcs^^ 



WHO IS HEf 59 

There are still others who call in question, not 
the nature of the sacrifice, but the need of any. 
And who are they who thus pass their futile sen- 
tence upon their Lawgiver and Judge but those 
who stand condemned before Him, cutting them- 
selves off in their folly from all hope of His 
mercy, so long as they insolently challenge His 
justice? When once He comes, no more to 
offer mercy, but " to execute judgment" — not 
only on " ungodly deeds," but upon " Murmur- 
ers and Complainers" ''for all their 
hard speeches" which these "un- 
godly sinners have spoken against Him" — then 
will their punishment be less because they have 
denied His right or will to decree it? 

Proud and blind in their rebellion, or despe- 
rately deceived, shall these be reasoned with, and 
how? Yes, the Ambassadors are charged with a 
message even for such — honest but most com- 
passionate — " Knowine the terror of 
^ ^ 2 Cor. V. 11. 

the Lord, we persuade men." And 

the story comes down to us of one of them so 

earnest in his loyalty, so patient and so tender in 

his pity, that for " the space of three 

Acts XX. 31. 
years he ceased not to warn every one 

night and day with tears," lest they also should 



6o WHO IS HE ? 

be misled. He feared the wolf without, ready to 
spring upon the flock — that " Church of God 
which He had purchased with His own blood." 
But even more He feared the treacherous shep- 
herds w^ithin the fold ; — the men of their own 

selves that should arise, " speaking 

Acts XX. 29, 30. , . , , ,. . 

perverse thmgs to draw away disci- 
ples after them." And foreseeing it all, he 
passed on to us the charge, '' Therefore watch !" 

And to this very day, they who watch are 
startled to hear, suddenly, in their midst and 
close beside them, the secret counsels of the 
foe. 

No need of an atonement! No need of propi- 
tiation ! No need to be pardoned, to be ran- 
somed, to be redeemed ! What fallen spirit in 
its fearful looking-for of judgment first dared the 
bold denial.^ Even he, whom Christ called so 

significantly, '' A murderer from the 
John viii. 44. 

beginning" and "A liar and the 

father of it." He purposed to destroy our life ; 

and so he whispered as his first falsehood in the 
ear of Eve, " Ye shall not surely 
die." And still he would persuade 

his victims to whom life is so freely offered, 

'' Ye are not surely dead." But we are dead — 



IVHO IS HEl 6l 

not asleep only, not sick only, but Eph. ii. 1. 
'' dead in trespasses and sins," — until Eph. v. 14. 
Christ gives us life — until by a new birth we 
awake to righteousness. The actual position 
of humanity has been described in words full of 
deepest humiliation, and yet of highest hope. 
'' He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the 
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this pur- 
pose the Son of God was manifested 
^ 1 Jolm iii. 8. 

that he might destroy the works of 

the devil." These are no fanatical words ; no 
disagreeable phrases, contrived to frighten us ; 
no old wives' fables, but the accurate diagnosis 
of Him who stands waiting to heal us. We re- 
fuse to listen at our peril. For, " if we confess 
our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
" If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 

selves^ Nor is this all. " If we say 

., ^ , 4. • 1 z 1 John i. 8-10. 

that we have not smned, we fnake 

Him a liai^T 

The fall of man from his first estate, his loss 

of the image of God, his being thus overcome 

and brought into bondage under a cruel enemy ; 

and our being thus " by nature the children of 

wrath," walking as " the children of disobedi- 



62 WHO IS HEf 

ence," " according to the prince of the power 

of the air," and ''according to the 

EpL ii. 1-3. ,, , . -,-,„■, 

course ot this world — these are facts 

which the Holy Scriptures assert and assume 

throughout. Nor w^as it a partial overthrow of 

His temple, that called down its Builder from 

heaven, to place His strong shoulder beneath 

the sinking ruin, and to say, '• The earth and 

all the inhabitants thereof are dis- 

Ps, Ixxv, 3. 1 1 T 1 1 -11 r •. >» 

solved : 1 bear up the pillars oi it. 

For so it is written, '' There is none righteous, 

710 not 07te, . . . There is none that 

Eom. iii. 10-12. . , , ^ „ rr^ -^ • 

doeth 2"ood, 7io 7iot o?ie, 1 rue it is 

that we find still among these ruins, fragments 

of marvellous beauty, and what to our eyes seems 

purity, where the hand of the Restorer has not 

been seen to pass. But God is the judge. •' His 

eyes behold. His eyelids try the children of men." 

His eyes are purer. His eyelids search deeper 

than ours ; and it becomes us to say — ''Yea, let 

God be true, but every man a liar." Accepting 

then his word, it is '' proved both of Jew^s and 

Gentiles that they are all 7i?ider sl?z " . . . . 

'• that every mouth may be stopped, 

Eom. iii, 9-19. ^ 77 ^j 77 " 1 

and ail the zvo?'la may become 

GUILTY BEFORE GoD." 



WHO IS HEf 63 

In entire consistency with this, we find that to 
the Hebrews, ah-eady possessed of a formal and 
legal righteousness, there was proclaimed as the 
preliminary of faith, '^ Repentance 
from dead wor^s.'' And so far were 
the Apostles from claiming any advantage in 
this respect over the more ungodly Gentiles, that 
with a singularly adroit exclusion of all self-right- 
eous claims, they say, "We believe that through 
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
we shall be saved even as t/ieyJ' 

It is in keeping with the fatal deception that 
our sin is not deadly, that we should doubt or 
deny together, the power of Satan to destroy, and 
the power of the Saviour to save. They who 
explain away the very existence of the one, will 
naturally proceed to lower the character and the 
offices of the other. But once admitting the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin, and our peril of the 
wrath to come, and then it becomes no mere 
metaphor to us that " an Enemy hath done this ;" 
and then, also, does such a sacrifice as that of the 
Saviour reveal itself as most needful and most 
reasonable. Christ crucified may be a stumbling- 
block to some, and foolishness to others. But 
they who are saved, and who stand with their 



64 WHO IS HE ? 

feet upon the rock, looking back into the horrible 

pit, and can see what a marvellous work it was 

to bring them up, these can behold in the cross 

of Christ both '' the power of God" 

' ' ' ' and ''the wisdom of God." What 

seems the foolishness of God is wiser than men. 

Could the world have believed it to be wisdom, 

it would neither have crucified, nor would it now 

reject, the Lord of glory. 

And yet it is not for us to sound the unknown 

depth of those words, " It became Him for 

whom are all things, and by whom are all things, 

in bringing many sons unto glory to 
Heb. ii. 10. 

make the Captain of their Salvation 

perfect through sufferings." How vain all specu- 
lative thought, as to why our release from suffer- 
ing the penalty of sin should be purchased by 
His suffering beyond any of us all ; as to why 
He who had all power in heaven and on earth 
should put himself unresistingly into the hands 
of evil men ; as to why His divinity should hum- 
ble itself to the straits and limits of our hu- 
manity. Even to them which are perfect, the 

wisdom of God is still spoken in a 
1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. 

mystery. We know not the full 

wherefore ; but the glorious fact itself is clear as 



WHO IS HEP 65 

the noonday. He did it ; and did it by no sud- 
den surprise, but in the calm fulfihnent of the 
whole spirit of prophecy, as so clearly announced 
in the earliest of all — that He who, as the Seed 

of the woman, should bruise the ser- 

Geu. iii. 15. 
pent's head, must in so doing suffer 

that serpent to bruise His heel. The prophets 

felt the burden of the mystery, '' Searching what 

or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ 

which was in them did signify, when it testified 

beforehand the sufferings of Christ 

and the glory that should follow." . . » . 

When Christ for the only time on earth assumed 

that majesty, which was like the coming in His 

kingdom, and there talked with Him Moses and 

Elias, who appeared in glory, we are permitted 

one glimpse of the unutterable interests of that 

converse between the greatest of the prophets, 

thus reappearing after the lapse of ages : They 

'' spake of His decease which He 

Luke ix. 31. 
should accomplish at Jerusalem." 

Nor is it a theme alone for prophets and for 

glorified saints to ponder : '' These 

^ . ^ 1 Pet. i. 12. 

things the angels desire to look 

into." 

What utter necessity there may have been for 
5 



(>(> WHO IS HEf 

the fulness of that cup of suffering we cannot 
know. ''Abba, Father, all things are possible 
unto thee," was the prayer of Jesus in His hour of 
agony. And yet to His thrice repeated cry, " If it 
Matt. xxvi. 39- ^^ possible," we find no other answer 
'^6. than an angel from heaven strength- 

ening Him, and His own submissive going forth 
to the death of the Cross. The truth which is 
revealed is not whether it was for God the only 
way to save us, but that it is for us the only way 
to be saved. Enough for us that we can find in 
that Cross the strongest conceivable proof of our 
sin and our danger, and of His love and sure 
salvation. On His head are many crowns ! 

What if there be one name written 

Eev. xix. 12. , , i i tt i • iz-i 

that no man knoweth but He himself I 

Who is He, then.? Among those many crowns 

which shall be held the highest and the brightest, 

while things on earth and things in heaven do 

homage to the name of Jesus.? Prince of life 

and Captain of our salvation ! casting out the 

prince of this world — the Deliverer from the 

enemy — redeeming man, and "ransoming him 

from the hand of him that was strong- 
Jer. xxxi. 11. 

er than he ;" proclaiming liberty, and 

opening the prison doors where the captives lay, 



WHO IS HEP 67 

bound, and bruised, and blind, and broken- 
hearted ; proclaiming the acceptable year of the 
Lord, that is now, and the day of vengeance of 
our God, that shall be hereafter ; healing, and 
comforting, and leading out all that , i • no 
would follow Him ; bringing them Luke iv. 16-21. 
over from that region of darkness • ■ » • 
and death to His own kingdom ; redeemed, re- 
stored, reconciled, and made at one with God ; 
renewed in His image again, His children and 
His heirs ! Such was Jesus, the Saviour, the 
Redeemer ! 

How shall we give honor to Him who thus 
went forth "conquering and to conquer," and 
when again He ascended up on high led captiv- 
ity captive, and gave His gifts to the rebellious? 
He who inspired His servants of old, and, when 
they were to speak of the things touching the 

King, gave them for a tongue the pen 

Ps. xlv. 1. 
of a ready writer, has so ordered it 

that this greatest victory should be told in no 

cold or common speech, but in songs of praise 

and shouts of triumph, that burst from lips still 

warm with the live coal of the Seraphim. 

'' Sing, O daughter of Zion ! shout, O Israel ! 

Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daugh- 



68 WHO IS HEf 

ter of Jerusalem ! The Lord hath taken away 

thy judgments ; He hath cast out thine enemy. 

The King of Israel, even the Lord, 
Zeph. iii. 14, 15. . . , . , ^ , , , , 

IS m the midst of thee ; thou shalt 

not see evil any more." 

''I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy trans- 
gressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto 
me, for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye 
heavens, for the Lord hath done it : shout, ye 
lower parts of the earth : break forth into sing- 

ine, ye mountains, O forest, and 
Isa.xUv.22,23. ^ -^ 

every tree therein : for the Lord hath 

redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel." 
And so let the redeemed of the Lord, "whom 
He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy," 
take up the song of Moses, and turn it to a song 
for their Deliverer — '' Sing unto the Lord, for 
He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his 
rider hath He thrown into the sea. . . . Thou in 
thy mercy hast led forth the people 
which thou hast redeemed : thou hast 
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habi- 
tation. . . . Thou shalt bring them in and plant 
them in the mountain of thine inheritance — in 
the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for 
Thee to dwell in !" 



IX. 




PND this is His name whereby He shall 
be called, The Lord our 
KtghteousnessJ in this 
rapid survey of the work of the Redeemer, 
there are some aspects which have been hurried 
past. Two of these especially have been often 
mistaken and confused, for the simple reason 
that they are the slightly varied views of one 
and the same truth, placed side by side, and re- 
quiring to be seen together^ if we would bring 
out their lifelike faithfulness. The closing of an 
eye on one must dim the other. Thus the right- 
eousness of Christ that through His death can- 
cels the debt of sin, and the righteousness of 
Christ that through His life becomes our real 
possession, are inseparably bound together by 
that Title Deed which conveys to us "the un- 
searchable riches of Christ." The righteousness 
that is imputed and the righteousness that is 
imparted are all of one. 

The Bride that brings to her Heavenly Bride- 

C9 



70 WHO IS HEf 

groom no dowry but a hopeless debt, however 

unspeakably humbled, is saved from all her 

fears. Every claim of the past she can and must 

refer to Him, as ''the Lord her Righteousness." 

And for all her present needs she has no wealth 

to draw upon save His, who delights, as she 

well knows, to have her " glorious within and 

her clothing of wrought gold." Giving her to 

the half of His kingdom, His very name is hers ; 

for "this is the name wherewith 
Jer, xxxiii. 16. 

she shall be called : The Lord our 

Righteousness." She may sometimes waste His 
treasures : she may sometimes fail in her full 
love and duty; but not "for every cause" will 
He put her away. 

And constantly in the Holy Scriptures do these 
truths pass over the one more or less into the 
other. Few, indeed, are those portions where 
we fail to find the overlapping edge. As an in- 
stance, let us take those two representations of 
the same Apostle — two and yet one : " All have 
sinned and come short of the glory of God ; 
being justified freely by His grace, through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God 
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith 
in His blood, to declare His righteousitess for 



WHO IS HEP 71 

the remission of sins that are past, through the 

forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this 

time His righteousness ; that He 

Rom. iii. 23-26. 
might be just, and the justifier of 

him which beHeveth in Jesus." This presents 

chiefly His righteousness for the past ; now for 

the future : '' He hath made Him to be sin 

for us, who knew no sin, that we 

2 Cor, V. 21. 
might be made the righteousness 

of God in Him." So also that passage already 
referred to, which so emphatically excludes the 
thought that we are saved by works of righteous- 
ness which we have done, is supplemented by 
another which follows immediately: ''This is a 
faithful saying, and these things I will that thou 

affirm constantly, that they which 

Titus iii. 8. 
have believed in God might be care- 
ful to maintain good works." And agam we 
find both views united in a single period, as in 
those tender and appealing words, ''Who His 
own self bare our sins in His own body on the 

tree, that we beine dead to sins 

1 Peter ii. 24. 
should live unto righteousness : by 

whose stripes ye were healed." And yet it is the 

dying to sins first, the living to righteousness 

afterward ; the healing first, and then the health. 



72 WHO IS HEf 

For while these fellow-truths lie so closely and 
inseparably side by side, there can be no ques- 
tion that the one precedes the other, even if it 
be in itself the lesser truth. " If," says an Apos- 
tle, " when we were enemies we were reconciled 

to God by the death of His Son, 
Rom. V. 10. ^ 

much more, being reconciled^ we 

shall be saved by His life." And by all the un- 
speakable blessings of health, and strength, and 
full stature, and perfect soundness, will our in- 
terest centre upon the point of healing — the pass- 
ing from death unto life. Birth will ever remain 
a greater marvel than existence ; and "joy shall 
be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more 

than over ninety and nine lust per- 
Liikexv.7. . *^ J r 

sons, which need no repentance." 





Matt. i. 23. 



Acts i. 3. 



HEY shall call His name Emmanuel, 

which, being interpreted, is 

God with us." In that body 
which was prepared for Him, He appeared but 
once. But He is Emmanuel still. For forty days 
Jesus showed himself alive after His 
passion by many infallible proofs ; 
and then from the midst of His disciples, gath- 
ered together upon Olivet, " He was taken up, 

and a cloud received Him out of their 

. . „ ^ ^ ^ , , . Acts i. 9, 12. 

sight. JDut two great and precious 

promises were first given to His people. The two 
men in white apparel gave the one : '^ This same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" — 
the same promise that was confirmed so solemnly 
afterward : " Behold, He cometh with clouds ; 
and every eye shall see Him, and they 
also which pierced Him : and all kin- 
dreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. 

73 



Acts i. 11. 



Eev. i. 7. 



74 WHO IS HE / 

Even so. Amen." The other promise, then* sup- 
port and comfort until then, Jesus Himself gave 
Matt, zxviii. ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^ before : '' Lo. I am with 
^^* you ahvay, even unto the end of the 

world. Amen." Even in giving the promise of 

the Spirit — *• I will prav the Father, 

John xiv. 16. j tt i n • ' .1 r- 

and lie shall give you another Com- 
forter, that He may abide with vou for ever" — 
how tenderly did He teach them to identify this 
new gift with Himself: "• I will not leave you 
John xiv. 18 Comfortless : /will come to you. Yet 
^^' a little while, and the world seeth me 

no more ; but ve see me : because I live, ye shall 
live also." Yet even such savings as these, have 
been wrested and shaped into one of the most 
subtle of errors — an error that numbers among 
its adherents less deceivers than deceived. And 
there mav be not a few who miss that stand-point 
where we can best behold the fulness of Christ, 
not so much by wilfully stopping short of it, as 
by anxiously passing too far beyond it. We have 
now to consider such questions as these : Is it 
not said, that *' though we have known Christ 
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him 
no more?" Instead of dwelling so much upon 
a work accomplished so long ago, ought we not 



WHO IS HE f 75 

rather to look to the Holy Spirit and His work 
in our hearts now, abide under His teachings, 
mind the Light, follow our Guide, and thus know 
a present manifestation of God in the temple of 
the soul — Christ in us, our hope of Glory? Why 
sliould we seek the living among the dead ? And 
thus, even while opening a hand to receive this 
added gift, the other hand loosens its hold upon 
the old treasure. Too often the truths once for- 
mally admitted, and still it may be retaining their 
place in some abstract summary of doctrine, are 
virtually laid aside as of no practical value — 
things to be looked at, but not used ; armor which 
it is well to hang upon our walls, but which we 
have no need to wear. There is indeed no little 
force in such objections when directed against 
those who lay a foundation, but fail to build. 
But what if, in building higher ourselves, we 
meanwhile so hide our chief Corner-Stone that 
others thinking to follow our faith forget even to 
lay it ! 

Again, what saith the Scripture? Or rather 
let us ask. How has the Spirit of God, as speak- 
ing through those pages, set forth His own work, 
and what is the relation which it bears to the 
work of Christ? 



76 WHO IS HE ? 

"It is expedient for you that I go away/' said 

Jolm xvi 7 Jesus ; for if I go not away the Com- 

^2' forter will not come unto you ; but if 

I depart. I will send him unto you." '• He will 

guide you into all truth." '' He shall 

JolinxiY, 26. , n 1 . „ xT-1 

teach you all thmgs. \\ hy expe- 
dient? What was He to teach them ? Why did 
Christ send Him.^ Was it to draw the mind 
away from Him to a new object of faith? Was 
it to set aside His work as a thing of the past." — 
to teach other \vords than those of which He 
had said. *• My words shall not pass away".^ 
Let us read over those promises : *• He shall 

teach you all things, and bring all 
Jolm, xiv, 26. ^ ' 

thmgs to your remembrance, whatso- 

Johnxv. 26. soever /have said unto you." " He 

JolinxYi. 15. shall testify of 77/^." ''He shall take 

of 7?zme^ and shall show it unto you." 

" He shall glorify ;;7^." As surely 

then as we are taught by the Spirit, we are taught 

the things of Christ. Has a prophet set forth 

the blessedness of being '' taught of God" — the 

" great peace," the '' righteousness," 
Isa. liv, 13-17. 

and the safetv. that are thus found bv 

His children as "their heritage?" Then Jesus 

has also shown us the first result of beinof so 



WHO IS HE f 77 

taught, and the true channel of all these bless- 
ings ; for He said, ''It is written in the prophets, 

And they shall be all taught of God. 

John vi. 45. 
Every man, therefore, that hath heard 

and learned of the Father cometh unto fne,^^ 

Jesus declared that this Spirit of Truth was to 

'' reprove the world of sin ;" but He 

Jolm xvi. 8, 9. 
added, " Of sin, because they believed 

not on me." The Holy Spirit is represented as 

striving with man, reproving him, knocking at 

the door, inviting him, drawing him ; but is 

never spoken of as ahidhtg in any heart until 

that heart belongs to Christ. And the gift v^^as 

sure to follow upon that faith, as we may plainly 

infer from the reverse saying : '' Now, 

if any man have not the bpu'it or 

Christ, he is none of His." The divine order in 

the knowledge of Christ is this : " In whom ye 

trusted, after that ye heard the word 

Eph. i. 13. 
of truth, the gospel of your salva- 
tion : in whom also, after that ye believed^ ye 
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." 
To His disciples, and " not unto the world," did 
Christ promise this new manifestation* in words 

* A much-abused passage, i Cor. xii. 7, is no excep- 
tion to this. The context plainly shows that the Apostle 



78 WHO IS HE? 

that link together in inseparable unity Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit : " If a man love me, he 

Jolm xiv. 22, ^^^1 ^^^^P ^^y words : and my Father 

^^' will love him, and we will come 

unto him, and make our abode with him." 

What shall we answer, then, to all those who 

claim to have found more light, by looking away 

from Him who said, "I am the Light of the 

world : he that foUoweth me shall 

not walk in darkness, but shall have 

the light of life," and who claim to be more 

spiritual, by leaving behind them the work of 

Christ in the flesh ? We will answer with the 

prophet — ''To the law and to the testimony : if 

they speak not according to this 
Isa.viii.20. . . 

word, it is because there is no light 

in them." We will answer with the Apostle — 

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every 

Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come 

in the flesh is of God ; and every 

1 Jolm iv. 2, 3. -^ 

Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus 

was speaking only of believers, and the gifts which 
they received for the profit of the one body. The words 
might be closely rendered : " To each is given the 
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." It 
will be readily seen how this accords with what follows : 
*'to one," "to another," etc. 



WHO IS HE? 79 

Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And 

this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have 

heard that it should come." It is not the bare 

assent of the understanding to a fact that is here 

demanded, but that with the heart 

Eom. X. 8-10. 
we should believe unto righteousness, 

and then with the mouth make confession unto 
salvation. 

No ! the work of Christ in the flesh is never 
to loosen its hold on our remembrance, or to 
slide from its place in our faith and our affec- 
tions. Never can we hope, through mere obe- 
dience to duty (as if it were the sole office of the 
Spirit to reveal this), to become the children of 
God. There must be the obedience of faith 
first. " This is the work of God, that 
-ye believe on Him whom He hath Jolinvi.29. 
sent." ''Whosoever believeth that 
Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." 
Never may we dare to claim any real victory 
over the world without this faith: ''Who is he 

that overcometh the world but he 

1 Jolm V. 5. 
that believeth that Jesus is the Son of 

God?" To Him, and not to any gift, or power, 

or principle apart from Him, are we directed for 

life and strength. Still with us, as He is, even 



8o WHO IS HE? 

unto the end of the world, His word is, "Abide 

in me, and I in you. ... I am the 
Jonn XV. 4, 5. ^ 

Vine ; ye are the branches. With- 
out me ye can do nothing." 

And yet it is made equally certain that the 
power of the Holy Spirit is essential to the very 
life of our souls, and to every step of our spirit- 
ual progress. '^No man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord but by the 

Holy Ghost." "As many as are led 

Eom. viii. 14, , i o • • r ^ i i i 

by the bpirit of (jod, they are the 

sons of God." 

The uniting link is easil}^ found. The promise, 
" He shall take of mine and show it unto you,'* 
covers not the words which He spoke only, but 
the entire truth as it is in Jesus — His life. His 
death. His resurrection. His nature. His work — 
Himself in His fulness. All this is summed up 
in a comprehensive term, used in a sense not far 
removed from that in which Jesus was person- 
ally called " The Word" — a lower sense, and yet 
akin to it— " the word," "the word of faith," 
"the word of His grace," "the word preached," 
"the ingrafted word," '-''the -word of the t7^uth 
of the GospelJ' And here also we find the 
harmony of expressions which sometimes seem 



WHO IS HBP 51 

at variance. We are to be born of the Spirit ; 

but it is also said that we are begotten 

11 1 /- 1/1-1 James i, 18. 

by the word of truth, '' being born 

aeain not of corrifptible seed, but of 

, 1 Pet. i. 23-25. 

incorruptible, by the word of God . . 

the word which by the Gospel is preached." We 

are told both of the " baptism of the Holy 

Ghost," and of the ''washing of water by the 

word." We are to be sanctified by the Spirit, 

and yet Jesus prayed, " Sanctify them through 

thy truth : Thy word is truth." '' The 

Jolm xvii. 17. 
sword of the Spirit is the word of 

^ Eph. vi. 17. 

God ;" but only as it is wielded by 

such a hand can it be said, ''The word of God 

is quick and powerful, and sharper 

than any two-edged sword." 

And so also it is through the presence and 

power of the Spirit, that the life of Jesus in the 

flesh and the shedding of His blood, meet our 

daily and continuous need as our " Bread of 

Life." Through one of the simplest yet closest 

analogies, has our Lord taught us the constant 

appropriation of His life and death. "Except 

ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink 

His blood, ye have no life in you." . . 

"My flesh is meat indeed, and my 



82 WHO IS HEf 

blood is drink indeed." . . . ''He that eateth 

me, even he shall live by me." Rebuking the 

gross misapprehension of His hearers, Jesus 

taught that this bread of life could only be given 

and received spiritually. ^'It is the Spirit that 

quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth noth- 
Joka vi. 63. . r^^, _ , _ _ 

mg. ihe words that 1 speak unto 

you, they are spirit, and they are life." 

Thus the work of the Spirit blends harmoni- 
ously with the work of Christ — distinct, and yet 
separated by no abrupt line of division. The 
one great object of faith set before us is Jesus 
Christ. The awakening, life-giving and trans- 
forming power within us is His Spirit. And so 
it comes to pass that ''we all with open face, be- 
holding as in a glass the glory of the 
Lord, are changed into the same 
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
of the Lord." 




XL 




|ESUS CHRIST, the same yesterday, 
and to-day, and for ever," is an an- 
nouncement followed by a charge which 

is evidently founded upon it ; " Be 

•^ ^ Eel), xiii. 8, 9. 

not carried about with divers and 

strange doctrines." There is still another weapon 
that has been forged out of the Scriptures for the 
overthrow of the Truth. Some, w4io do not 
question how the Gospel was at first revealed, 
are found claiming that it is subject to change ; 
and that we may enjoy now a more perfect reve- 
lation through the Spirit, than the primitive be- 
lievers were prepared for. They rest this claim 
upon those words of Christ which precede the 
promise of the Spirit as a guide to all truth : 
'' I have yet many things to say 
unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
now." 

Unquestionably Christian practice admits of 
development and change. The Gospel is not a 

S3 



Jolin xvi. 12. 



84 TVHO IS HE f 

collection of precise forms and minute directions. 
It does not propose to chisel out for us rows of 
perfect statues, but to give us armies of living 
men — laborers for our harvest-fields — adapted 
variously to the age they live in, and the work 
which is assigned them. The laws of life and 
health, the laws of perfect growth and full ser- 
vice, are, indeed, most jealously guarded ; but 
in minor matters, a large authority and power 
of judgment is entrusted to the Church, under 
the control and direction of the Head of the 
Church. For guidance in his own special path 
of duty, the believer must rest on that broad 

promise : "I will guide thee with 

Ps, xxxii, 8, . 7> !-» i. i.1 • • i. 

mme eye. But this is not our ques- 
tion — Is "the word of the truth of the Gospel" 
to change? Abundant space there is, indeed, 
both in our individual lives, and from one genera- 
tion to another, to grow in knowledge — to un- 
derstand and to apply^ under ever-changing cir- 
cumstances, that which has been once revealed. 
But as to the Truth itself, that promised Spirit 
of Truth came the7z^ and was given to the Apos- 
tles^ largely and miraculously, for their all-im- 
portant work in the Church of Christ. And so 
it is still the one unchangeable Truth — '' the 



WHO IS HE f 85 

everlasting Gospel" — ''the great salvation, 
which at the first began to be spoken by the 
Lord, and w^as confirmed by them that heard 
Him ; God also bearing them witness both with 
signs and wonders, and divers mira- 
cles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost." 
If any claim another revelation, fuller and more 
perfect, where is the confirmation, and how does 
God bear them witness? 

That which the Apostle Paul declared was " all 

the counsel of God." The Gospel of 

^ aal.i.l2. 

Christ, which he preached, had been 
taught him by revelation ; and he spake thus of 
those who perverted it : '' Though we, or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you 
than that which we have preached unto you, let 
him be accursed." It was no hasty speech, for 
he solemnly repeats it : '' As we said before, so 
say I now again, if any man preach any other 

Gospel unto you than that ye have 

11 1 . 1 1 » A 1 <^al. i. 8, 9. 

received, let hnii be accursed. And 

that other Apostle, whose heart was so full of 

love, says, in words scarcely less strong. '' He 

that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath 

both the Father and the Son. If there come 

any unto you, and bring not this doctrine. 



86 WHO IS HE f 

receive him not into vour house, 

2Joliii9,10. * 

neither bid him (jod speed. 

Who is He. then, as preached by the Apostles, 

when in their ministry was at last set forth 

the things which Jesus did not say, because they 

could not yet be borne .^ In the Acts of the 

Apostles, and in their Epistles, we shall find our 
answer. And turning now from further consid- 
eration of doubts and objections, to a more posi- 
tive presentation of truth, let us listen to a simple 
summary of their teaching. 

In the first discourse of Peter after his bap- 
tism bv the Holv Ghost — a discourse which re- 
sulted in adding about three thousand souls to 
the number of believers — he dwells mainly upon 
the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and 
the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit: ''This 
Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are 
witnesses ;" '• He hath shed forth this which ye 
now see and hear :" •* Therefore let all the house 

of Israel know assuredly, that God 

Acts ii. 32-36. , , , , -r i 

hath made that same Jesus whom ye 

have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Again, 

after the healing of the lame man at the gate of 

the Temple, he proclaimed the same facts : •' Ye 

denied the Holy One and Just;" ''Ye killed the 



WHO IS HE f 87 

Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the 
dead;" "And His name, through faith in His 

name, hath made this man strong 

u J 1 » A J Acts iii. 14-16. 

whom 3^e see and know. And 

then, filled with the Holy Ghost, he said unto 
the rulers and elders: ''This is the stone which 
was set at naught of you builders, which is be- 
come the head of the corner. Neither is there 
salvation in any other; for there is none other 
name under heaven given among 
men whereby we must be saved.'' 
Again, we find the same Apostle pleading before 
the council : " The God of our fathers raised up 
Jesus, whom^ ye slew and hanged on a tree. 
Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be 
a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to 
Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are 

His witnesses of these thines ; and 

. , ^^ ^ ^^ "^ , Acts V. 30-32. 

so also IS the Holy Ghost, whom 

God hath given to them that obey Him." And 

then departing from the council, '' daily in the 

Temple and in every house they 

Acts Vi 42. 
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 

Christ." So, also, we follow Philip in the city 

of Samaria, and in the Ethiopian chariot ; 

and we find that he ''preached Acts viii. 5, 35. 



88 WHO IS HE f 

Christ" — ''preached Jesus." A devout and 
God-fearing man, Cornelius, is charged by an 
angel to send for Peter, '' who shall tell thee 
words whereby thou and all thy house shall be 
saved." What w^ords, then, did Peter speak? 
" The word which God sent unto the children 
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ" — 
words which tell what Jesus of Nazareth did and 
suffered, and that ended thus : " Whosoever be- 
Actsx. 1-48. lieveth in Him shall receive remis- 
Acts xi. 1-18. sion of sins." And while Peter yet 
spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all 
them which heard the word ; for they believed 
on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Such was the witness of those who could say, 

''That which was from the beginning, which we 

have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 

which we have looked upon, and our 

hands have handled of the Word of 

Life, . . , declare we unto you." 

And now another witness, by whom He was 

seen last of all, beholds at mid-day a light from 

heaven, above the brightness of the sun, and 

hears the voice of his Lord, saying, "I am Jesus 

of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." 
Acts xxii. 8, 9. 

It is told him by Ananias what he 



WI/O IS HE ? 89 

must do : "The God of our fathers hath chosen 
thee, that thou shouldst know His will, and see 
that Just One, and shouldst hear the 
voice of His mouth ; for thou shalt 
be His witness." " And straightway he preached 
Christ." How does he preach Him.? We hear 
him at Antioch, in Pisidia, saying, "God hath 
raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus." "We de- 
clare unto you glad tidings — how that the pro- 
mise which was made unto the fathers, God hath 
fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that 
He hath raised up Jesus again." " Be it known 
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that 
through this man is preached unto you the for- 
giveness of sins ; and by Him all that believe are 
justified from all things, from which ye could 
not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, 
therefore, lest that come upon you which is 
spoken of in the prophets, 'Behold, ye despisers, 

and wonder and perish ; for I work 

, . , 1 1 . 1 Acts xiii, 23-41. 

a work m your days, a work which 

ye shall in no wise believe, though a man de- 
clare it unto you.'" We hear him, in his prison 
at Philippi, preaching the same Gospel to the 

trembling jailer : " Believe on the 

Acts xvi. 3I1 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 



90 WHO IS HEP . 

saved." We follow him to Thessalonica, and 
we find him in a synagogue of the Jews for 
three Sabbath days, reasoning with them out of 
the Scriptures, ''opening and alleging that Christ 
must needs have suffered and risen again from 

the dead, and that this Jesus whom I 

Acts xvii. 2, 3. , • r^i • 4. ?» Tir 

preach unto you is Christ. We go 

on to Athens, where they deem him " a setter- 
forth of strange gods, because he preached unto 
them Jesus and the resurrection." And we hear 
him upon Mars' Hill, making known their un- 
known God, and that man by whom He will 
judge the world, "whereof He hath given 
assurance unto all men in that He 
g-j^^ ' ' hath raised Him from the dead." At 
Acts xviii. 5. Corinth, pressed in spirit, he testifies 
to the Jews that Jesus is Christ. And referring 
to this visit in his first Epistle to them, he says, 

"I determined not to know anything 

1 Cor. ii. 2. t r^i • i. j 

among 3'Ou, save Jesus Christ, and 

Him crucified." And again, " I delivered unto 
you^ Ji7'st of alU that which I also received, how 
that Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures ; and that He was buried, and that He 
rose again the third day, according to the Scrip- 
tures ;" and this he declared as " the Gospel 



IVNO IS HE!' 91 

which I preached unto you, which also ye have 

received, and w^ierein ye stand ; by w^hich also 

ye are saved if ye keep in memory 

, -P , , , 1 Cor. XV, 1-4. 

what 1 preached unto you, unless ye 

have believed in vain." 

In his farewell address to the elders of Ephe- 
sus, he thus reviews his ministry : ''I kept back 
nothing that was profitable unto you, but have 
showed you and have taught you publicly, and 
from house to house, testifying . . . 
repentance toward God, and faith Acts xx. 20 21. 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And 
finally we see hiin at Rome, bound with his 
chain, with many Jews around him in his lodg- 
ing, to whom he expounded and testified the 
kingdom of God, "persuading them concerning 

Jesus, both out of the law of Moses 

Acts xxviii. 23. 
and out of the prophets, from morn- 
ing till evening." And in the last record of the 
novsr aged Apostle, as he dwelt two whole years 
in his own hired house, w^e find him still 

'' preaching the kingdom of God, and 

, . ,, ,, . , . , Acts xxviii. 31. 

teaching those things which concern 

the Lord Jesus Christ." . 

Such was the preaching which was in demon- 
stration of the Spirit and of power. Such was 



92 WHO IS HEf 

the preaching by which "it pleased 
1 Cor. XV. 11. 



ICor. i. 21. ^ T , , 1 ,. -, ,. 

(jod to save them that beheved. 



So they preached and so they be- 
lieved. Do we the same? There is none other 
Gospel for any to preach, or for any to believe. 
And though there were, and even an angel 
preached it, he would be accursed. 

And turning now to the Epistles, we find in 
what manner the Apostles sought to strengthen 
the churches, that they might present every man 
perfect in Christ Jesus. To "keep in memory 
these things, to have them always in remem- 
brance," was their charge. And they never rest 
satisfied with present eftbrtc There is to be a 
constant reaching forth to things before, an un- 
wearied pressing toward the mark. The " Be- 
lieve only" of the Gospel is shown to be a most 
comprehensive belief, and the faith in Christ 
Jesus a continuous faith. Again and again they 
recur to the blessed truth, " Christ died for us," 
and set forth its abiding and controlling influ- 
ence upon the entire life of the Christian. "The 
love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus 
judge, that if one died for all, then were all 
dead : and that He died for all, that they which 
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 



WHO IS HEP 93 

but unto Him which died for them, 

, • •»> \ir • Wi. 1 i.1 2 Cor. V. 14, 15. 

and rose agam. VV e might take these 

words as the key-note of their whole teaching. 
Let any one glance rapidly over those pages, and 
especially the shorter Epistles, and see how often, 
blended sometimes with the name of the Father, 
and yet as frequently alone, he meets the words, 
"Christ," ''Jesus Christ," "our Lord Jesus 
Christ." They repeat it often in a single sen- 
tence, far beyond the requirements of a clear 
meaning, as a name they love — a name wiiose 
very sound is dear, and wdiose very mention 
should have power in it. In their most practi- 
cal exhortations, as well as in all doctrines, they 
find a starting-point and a goal, their motive, 
their encouragement, their final object, in Jesus 
Christ. Seated in heavenly places, and blessed 
with all spiritual blessings, accepted in the Be- 
loved, still they say, " In whom we have redemp- 
tion throuo^h His blood, the foreive- 

^ ^ Epli.i.3-7. 

ness of sins." They are in Christ 

Jesus, and He in them. Their life is " hid with 
Christ in God." They are to be rooted in 
Christ ; they are to be built up upon Christ. 
Their bodies are the members of Christ, and 
Christ is their Head. They are complete in 



94 ^J^o IS HE? 

Christ. They do all in the name of Christ, all 
for the sake of Christ, all from the love of 
Christ, all through the strength of Christ, all in 
the hope of Christ. '' Christ is all and in all." 
And how all His blessed attributes are some- 
times gathered up in one full accord of rejoicing 
and of praise, as when they say, "It is Christ 
that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is 

T, ... oy, even at the rig^ht hand of God, who 
Rom, vui. 34, ^ ' 

35. also maketh intercession for us. Who 

shall separate us from the love of Christ?" To 

them to live was Christ, and yet a thing far 

better was '' to depart and be with Christ." The 

joy of heaven itself was this, that when Christ 

who was their life should appear, then they also 

should '' appear with Him in glory." 

One glorious revelation triumphed 

over all the dimness of the future — 
1 Jolm iii. 2. 

" We shall be like HiTn^forwe shall 

see Him as He is,"" 

What marvel then if, at the close of one of his 
Epistles, an Apostle of Christ should write de- 
liberately with his own hand* one more awful 
anathema. He who preached another Gospel, 

* As his autograph postscript — the main Epistle being 
no doubt written by an amanuensis. See 2 Thess. iii. 17. 



WHO IS HEP 95 

and he who received not that Gospel In faith and 

love, are alike accursed. For even 

.. •.. 1 u -f 1 *. 10or.xvi.22. 

so must it be '' if any man love not 

the Lord Jesus Christ." 




XII. 




fHO is He, hast thou asked? Ahnost 
may it be said, with such a record 
setting forth His glory, and proclaiming 
Him with all the accordant voices of His wit- 
nesses : '' Thou hast both seen Him, and it is 
He that talketh with thee." Oh, that there may 
indeed have been, while we have thus com- 
muned together and reasoned, another drawing 
nigh as He did to His two disciples of old — 
Himself opening the Scriptures, till thy heart, 
Lukexxiv. 13- ^^^^ theirs, has burned within thee, 
^2- till thine eyes have been opened, and 

thou hast known Him ; yet not as then to vanish 
out of thy sight, but to hold thine eyes hence- 
forward, "• looking unto Jesus, the 
Author and Finisher of thy faith." 
For in this Gospel of Christ there is set before 
us no mere theory, no cold and dead abstractions, 
but an adorable Person; and we are shown the 
actual relation existing between each believing 
soul and an ever-living Saviour. To one who 
96 



Heb. xii. 2. 



IVHO IS HEf 97 

has been brought into this blessed union with 
Him, there is no room for doubt. The evidence 
of the Scriptures, and the witness of the Spirit, 
the exact supply of all our felt needs in the all- 
sufficiency of His grace, which rightfully consti- 
tutes our experience, — these make the realities of 
faith as sure though unseen, as are the things that 
are seen. When the soul has learned to believe 
in Jesus, and to love Him, it can trust Him for 
all difficulties. Surely of such a love, beyond 
any other, is it true that it '' beareth all things, 
believeth all things, hopeth all things, -j^ q^^. ^.|. „ 
endureth all things ;" and so quietly ^^' 
waits till that which is perfect is come, and that 
which is in part shall be done away. 

The hand that now traces these words has in 
days long past, written other words of doubt and 
unbelief. The heart that now yearns with an 
intense longing over you who are tempted in 
like manner, once feared to call Jesus, Lord, and 
to put its faith and hope in Him ; and searched 
in vain with blinded eyes, through the whole 
volume of Inspiration, to find one single con- 
vincing proof of His Divinity, and the Atone- 
ment which He made for sinners. Let the hu- 
miliating record stand, if it may possibly per- 



9S WHO IS HEf 

suade any who have said, '-We see," to ask now 

of Him who came that the\^ which 
Jolm ix. 39-41. 

see not might see — '' Are we bhnd 

also ?" A man that is called Jesus anointed those 

eyes ; and God hath shined in that 
2Cor.iv. 6. , ..,,., ^ , , 

heart, to give it the light of the know- 
ledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 
Such unbelief could never satisfy the soul. The 
pride of reason was strong ; but it could not stay 
the craving for peace, for nearness, for love, for 
communion ; and these could not be found till 
they were found at the cross of Christ. 

What did He to thee? How opened He thine 
eyes.^ is the question that some will surely ask. 
And this brings us to that point where so many 
stumble and grope perplexed — the personal ap- 
propriation of the gospel to our own souls. To 
the early Christians these truths were told as a 

new thing. They heard the word, 

John V, 24. , 11. 1 -y ,, 1 r 

they believed, and '' passed from 

death unto life." But what of those who have 

been familiar with it all their days.^ Have they 

no need to scale the heavens above, or to go 

down into the depths beneath '^. No, 
Kom. X. 6-8. 

the word is nigh them, '' the word 

of faith." He who has so freely provided for us 



WHO IS HEf 99 

this glorious Gospel of our salvation, knowing 
our utter helplessness, has brought it so nigh to 
us that there is to the willing heart but one step 
to reach our Saviour — our faith. And even for 
the taking of this one needful step, He holds out 
His own hand to aid us, and offers us the very 
faith which He requires of us. The necessity 
of a power beyond our owm, the agency of the 
Holy Spirit, is never presented to us in the Holy 
Scriptures as a hindrance, but always as the 
ready help. The necessity of prayer is never in 
any wise described as a barrier, but always as an 
open door of access, 

How^ o^Dened He thine eyes? The blindness 
was first confessed ; and then all followed as it 
did with him who cried, "Jesus, thou Son of 
David, have mercy on me ;" and who through 
every hindrance cried so much the more, "Thou 
Son of David, have mercy on me." The heart- 
felt prayer, "Lord, that I may receive my sight," 
must, so surely as He is true, be followed by His 
ready word of power : " Receive thy sight : thy 
faith hath saved thee." — " Immedi- Luke xviii. 35- 
atelyhe received his sight." For the 
way of Truth and Faith is short. The way of 
error and unbelief is long. 



XIII. 




[|HO is He that thou mayest believe? 
Yes, truly thou hast both seen Him, 
and it is He that talketh with thee. 
Thou hast seen Him in that human life — upon 
this very, earth ; seen Him in all those mighty 
deeds, in all those meek and gentle ways, in all 
those loving, gracious words ; seen Him as He 
hungered, and thirsted, and was tempted, and 
prayed, and wept, as man; seen Him as by a 
power that belongs to God alone, he provided 
bread for thousands, made wine for the wedding 
feast, cast out the Tempter from the troubled 
demoniacs, answered prayer, and gave back to 
the weeping sisters their four-days' dead ; seen 
Him as He was born, and lived, and died, and 
rose again. The record is before thee, and One 
is near thee, to open both the Scriptures and thy 
Lnke xxiv 32 "^^^^'standing, that thou mayest un- 
^5' derstand the Scriptures. 

And thou hast heard His voice — " A still 
small voice." It has whispered in thine ears the 

100 



WHO IS HE? lOl 

words He once spoke on earth. How it thrilled 
upon thy troubled, doubting heart as it said, 
'' Ye believe in God, believe also in me." How 
it wellnigh drew thee to Him as it said, " Come 
unto ME." How it almost made the cross He 
asked thee to bear for Him seem light, when 
such an one as He, bearing His own cross, said, 
" Follow thou ME." How its tender tones 
stirred up in thy heart the very affection it called 
for, as it said, again and again, " Lovest thou 
ME ?" How it half constrained thee to a willing 
obedience, as it said also, '' ^ y^ love me, keep 
my commandments." How it fell upon the fal- 
tering pauses of thy prayer, with a promise of 
new power, ''If ye shall ask anything in my 
Name^ I will do itT Behold Him, then ! Say 
unto Him, " Lord, I believe !" Yes, " worship 
Him" — bowing where " all the an- 
gels of God" have bowed before. 
Receive His pardon. His peace. Receive His 
Holy Spirit. Give Him the full faith of a trust- 
ing soul. Give Him the love of thy whole heart, 
and a life-long obedience. Fix also thy hope on 
Him, even " looking for that blessed hope, and 

the glorious appearing of the great 

Titus iii 13i 
God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ." 



I02 WHO IS HEf 

And say, as thou art " crucified with Christ" to 

a world that lieth in wickedness, " The life 

which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith 

of the Son of God, who loved me 
Gal.ii. 20. , , . ,^ ^ „. ^ 

and gave himself for me." bay to 

Him, as thy ''earnest expectation" waiteth for 

that other coming in His glory, and thou hearest 

His promise — the last He left thee — 
Rev. xxii. 20. 

" Surely I come quickly, Even so 

come. Lord Jesus." Or, falling asleep, if so He 
wills it, thou canst say to Him, as to One not 
only known and loved, but proved as the " Faith- 
ful and True," "Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit." 
And then, oh then, with the angels round about 
the throne — the "ten thousand times 
ten thousand, and thousands of thou- 
sands" — thou wilt say, "with a loud voice," 

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain 

To RECEIVE Power and Riches, 

And Wisdom and Strength, 

And Honor and Glory, 

And Blessing. 



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